Boston College is 46th in the NPI, and Northeastern is the fix

Boston College's October problem isn't the shootout in Denver or the loss to St. Cloud. It's one Friday night at Conte Forum, and the NPI won't let it go, which is why this weekend's home series with Northeastern is the first real chance to make it smaller.

The Eagles are 1-3-1 and 46th of 57 teams in the NPI. They were No. 11 in the poll the night Alaska came to Conte, and they aren't in the top 20 now. Northeastern comes in 11th in the NPI at 2-1-0, so BC's Hockey East opener comes with a résumé gap in it.

The night that hurts

Alaska beat BC 3-2 at Conte on Oct. 9. BC outshot the Nanooks 30-29, went 2-for-5 on the power play, got goals from Teddy Stiga and Dean Letourneau, and lost anyway on two third-period goals from Davis Borozinskis.

"It's a lot of times not what you get, but what you give up," Greg Brown said afterward.

Here's the Ferda number. Alaska is 1-5-0, so by our count the Nanooks' only win of the season came in Chestnut Hill. The NPI weighs every result by the opponent's strength, and a home loss to a one-win team is the kind of game that follows you to March.

The rest of the month was perfectly respectable, which is the frustrating part. BC shut out St. Cloud State 4-0, lost the rematch 5-3, lost 5-2 in Denver and tied the Pioneers 2-2 the next night before taking the shootout. Leaving Magness Arena with a tie against the No. 3 team in the poll is no crime.

Why Northeastern is the right opponent

Northeastern is unranked, and that's misleading. The Huskies won 5-1 at Bentley and split with UMass, losing the league game 4-1 and winning the other 4-1. Their NPI sits 11th, and it's built on two road wins and one loss to a respectable UMass team.

That's exactly the opponent BC needs, because a win over an NPI top-15 team counts in a way a win over Bentley never will, and the Eagles get two of them at home before Vermont comes to Conte next week.

Louka Cloutier made 26 saves in the Alaska loss and is the one player BC can't afford to have an off weekend. Letourneau, who had seven shots on goal that night, is the one who decides whether the power play stays live.

Campus Ice has the rest of the Hockey East weekend, from Maine at Agganis to Providence in Hamden.

Kessler's call

BC takes three of four points, winning Friday and tying Saturday, and climbs into the NPI's top 35. It isn't a fix, but it's the start of one. Ask me in February whether one Friday against Alaska still shows up in the NPI. I think it will.